Legendary NBAer Bill Russell has joined the list of former players who don’t appreciate the NCAA making profits off their image without being compensated. The former University of San Francisco star has filed a licensing antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and EA Sports for using his image in the company’s video game. From Bloomberg.com: “William “Bill” Russell, the former National Basketball Association star center for the Boston Celtics, accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association in an antitrust complaint of selling videos using his likeness without paying him or seeking his consent. The lawsuit is the latest to claim the NCAA violates federal antitrust laws by keeping former student basketball and football athletes from receiving compensation for the commercial use of their images and likeness. The association has denied wrongdoing in those cases. Electronic Arts Inc., the second-largest U.S. video game maker, is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Russell accuses it of using his image in a “Tournament of Legends” feature on an NCAA basketball video game. Russell, who led the University of San Francisco to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, said in the complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Oakland, California, that the association sells $150 videos of the team’s championship games. At least 54 video clips featuring him are available through the website of the NCAA’s for-profit business partner and photos of him through an NCAA on-line photo store, according to the complaint.”

The year 2010 has been a memorable year for basketball fans in so many ways. The Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics staged a classic seven-game Finals. The Team USA men’s squad won gold medal at the World Championships for the first time since 1994. LeBron took his talents to South Beach. And for video game fans, EA Sports’ NBA Jam made its long-awaited sequel.

The game’s first launch in 1993 captured the imagination of anyone who played it. Legendary quotes like “Boomshakalaka!” and “He’s On Fire!” — made famous by NBA Jam’s original voice, Tim Kitzrow — became entrenched in basketball lexicon forever.

As popular as the original NBA Jam was — the arcade version generated more than $1 billion, and the home edition sold more than 6 million copies — EA Sports faced a challenge in re-introducing the game.

“We were trying to hit two demographics [in marketing the game],” said Jeff Sharma, marketing product manager for NBA Jam. “Those who grew up playing Jam and the new generation who didn’t grow up having a chance to play the game.”

Social media served as an optimal platform for hitting both demographics, specifically with the newer generation. They used Facebook to promote a campaign in which fans could submit their favorite “Jamism” saying — “The monster jam!” is another older one — into a bracket tournament of 64. Over 3,000 entries were received, and Kitzrow recorded the 64 which were selected, so that voters could hear each of them before choosing their preferred line. The top four made their way into the game. That was just the beginning of EA’s dip into social media.

They ran a Twitter campaign in which they had a promoted Twitter trend, on November 18. Fans again submitted their favorite Jamisms, and Kitzrow recorded the top ones that were selected. His lines were recorded over video clips of the game, which EA re-tweeted back to users, with links to the clips on YouTube. They made 188 videos, which garnered over 160,000 views and over 66.3 million impressions.

“The fact that many people can see your brand and have an opportunity to interact with it is invaluable,” Sharma said.

And to extend their reach with a younger crowd, EA Sports lined up several young NBA stars to promote the game on various platforms. Kevin Durant, Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings promoted the game through their Twitter accounts. EA liked that each player brought name recognition and regular social media interaction to the table. Then there was the big man.

Dwight Howard has a presence and charisma that few other athletes possess. So, EA featured him in a Facebook video in which he played a Jam on an arcade system against fans on a street in New York City. Howard’s interaction with fans was everything EA hoped it would be. “In terms of a human embodiment of a Jam character, he’s it,” Sharma said. Bigger than life, huge personality, tons of fun. Him working with the game made a lot of sense.”

EA also veered slightly off the social media path in order to highlight the comedic aspect of Jam. They went to the website FunnyorDie.com to post a video in which an uncle competes against his nephew in various video games. He loses every one they play until the uncle gets to rekindle his old Jam magic on the title’s new edition. “We felt like Jam has this spirit of humor involved in it,” Sharma noted. With its approximately 1.7 million Twitter followers, 600,000 Facebook fans and youthful fan base, the website gave EA Sports value on an off-beat platform for a video game.

There’s still more to come. Sharma hinted there will be social media promotions in 2011, as well as additional unlockable characters. Among those who have been unveiled are eight notable politicians: Senator John McCain and his former Presidential campaign running mate Sarah Palin, former President George Bush and his Vice President Dick Cheney, former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama.

It’s not likely that the basketball-loving President will get to play the game, though. “We’ve thought about that, but we haven’t explored our options beyond that,” Sharma said. “[But] we made sure he shoots left-handed in the game.”

NBA 2K11 will hit stores next week, with NBA Elite 11 following suit at some point in the next few months. Which one are you more excited for? Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Here’s the thing: I’m an unapologetic basketball fanatic. Scratch that. I’m an unapologetic basketball junkie. Junkie. NBA, NCAA, AAU, high school, doesn’t matter. Basketball. Junkie. I’m so much of a junkie that I’d have white, crusty-lips from tweakin’ due to withdrawal like Chris Rock’s “Pookie” in New Jack City if I couldn’t get my basketball fix. Knowing this, it’s not a stretch to imagine that getting unfettered, glorious access to all things basketball for the 2010 NBA All Star Weekend in Dallas was 10 times better than a Zoe Saldana-induced wet dream for the kid.

That being said, even I wanted to table the whole damn weekend after learning that Dallas would be blanketed under eight inches of flight-cancelling, accident-causing, event-damaging snow. But then I thought about Zach Galifianakis’ Alan, who ate sofa pizza like it was as natural as a bodily function. Sure it’s cold pizza that might have been sat on by someone with plumber’s crack, but it’s still pizza, right? The L’s version of basketball nirvana would be cold, wet and covered with fresh powder, but it’s still basketball, right? So I soldiered on.

Not surprisingly, there were a lot of people who didn’t make it to the DFW area on Thursday because of the bad weather, which is why I went to the EA Sports invite-only event at the W Hotel’s Ghost Bar last night with lowered expectations.

The verdict? Simply put, the good folks at EA did the damn thing.

After riding the elevator up to the top floor with the Toronto Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan, who confirmed that Brandon “Young Money” Jennings will be assisting him with his dunks at the Slam Dunk-In contest against the Clippers’ Eric Gordon, I was surprised by the number of people who had braved the icy roads to get their party on.

I made a beeline to the back, where Kevin Durant and Deron Williams were in a heated battle, playing NBA Live 10, flanked by the glitterati, industry peeps, hangers on and assorted groupies who cheered them on.

KD gave D-Will a convincing spankin’ on the sticks, to which the Jazz PG chalked up to the Former UT standout’s youth.

“He got me, he got me,” Williams admitted. “He’s a young buck. He single. He doesn’t have any kids. I don’t have time to play video games, man.”

“I do this all day, everyday,” Durant said. “This is what I do.”

After the showdown, I took full advantage of the complimentary food and drinks and even designed my own commemorative All Star sneeks, which was a collabo between Adidas, EA and the NBA.

In between crab cake bites, I spied the most unlikely “invited” guest of the evening: embattled and recently ousted former Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. I thought dude was like MC Hammer broke. How’d he manage an All Star getaway?

The party was better than I’d expected up until that point, but then The Chocolate Boy Wonder Pete Rock happened.

It was just after midnight when the record spinnin’ half of the duo known for the classic, “They Reminisce Over You,” jumped on the 1s and 2s, taking the music to a shrieking crescendo. Almost immediately, the party went from comfortable to rugby scrum, notable to epic. Next thing you knew, you were squeezing by celebs and standing next to some of the League’s best players, head-noddin’ to Biggie, Pac, Snoop, MJ and The Artist Formerly Known As.

Heard: Me “You trying to take home the All Star MVP or what?” Dirk “They don’t want to see a jump shooter win the MVP.” Me “Take it strong to the hole then.” Dirk “Ok. I’m takin’ it strong to the hole.” Me “GTFOH.”

I was enjoying the festivities with Global Grind EIC Datwon Thomas, Kuhvet EIC Branden Peters and RIDES EIC Willie G, who pointed out that all the women at the party were hovering near ball players hoping for a meal ticket, while we were hovering near the Brand Jordan reps hoping for sneaker hookups. I guess we all have our priorities.

Last week, Dwight Howard took part in the rite of passage for all of the NBA Live cover athletes and spent the day at EA Sports studios in Burnaby, BC, outside of Vancouver.

EA flipped the script this year though. Rather than bring in the cover athlete and a supporting cast of NBA players to focus on Live, Dwight was flanked by athletes from other sports, with the attention being spread around to some of EA’s other sports titles. Tennis star Venus Williams, Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic and MLS player Sacha Kljestan joined Howard for a day of sports and video game talk.

Judging from the video of the event that EA sent over, it looks like Dwight handled himself well in soccer and hockey, scoring goals in a one-on-one setting in both sports. Further proof of his success comes from the giant trophy that he was awarded with on an EA podium. Note the dinky second-place souvenir Venus Williams took home.

The Orlando big man also ran a post-up clinic for the media present. As one Live 10 producer told me yesterday, Dwight swatted one media members’ shot attempt to the fence of EA’s outdoor court, and didn’t leave his feet to do it.